Just a decade ago, the following suggestion would earn you a private corner in a padded room, where the main source of amusement would have been an array of hat pins designed to be pushed through your frontal lobe.

But here goes nothing:

In the foreseeable future, the NCAA — the autocratic institution that runs a $6 billion annual business by exploiting an unpaid labor force — is going to be neutered or even obsolete.

The public perception veered sharply at College Station, where we learned that Johnny Manziel can’t make a buck on his own autograph without facing sanctions, while his school is using the profits from his talent to slap a $450 million addition on its football stadium.

The class-action suit against the NCAA, alleging that it failed to protect athletes from concussions, is moving forward, in the wake of the NFL suit that was settled for $765 million.

There is legislation being passed on the state level, such as the bill Gov. Jerry Brown signed in California protecting athletes from injury and from having their scholarships pulled, and there is similar legislation on the federal level currently in debate.

And last weekend, there was another movement afoot, one that can turn into an avalanche after it gets some media attention. It’s called All Players United, which began with 28 players from some major programs (Northwestern, Georgia, Georgia Tech) making a powerful statement simply by writing "APU" on their gear.

"Its message is about the need for NCAA reform, and we feel the players need to be part of the conversation," said Ramogi Huma, president of the National College Players Association, the nonprofit advocacy group for college athletes. "For the first weekend, it could not have gone better: The number of players who stood up to spread the message are small, but we’re optimistic it’s going to explode. We have a lot of weekends to go."

The list of concerns can be found in detail at NCPAnow.org, but here are the broad strokes of the APU movement: It seeks support for the O’Bannon suit and the concussion suit against the NCAA; guaranteed scholarship renewals for injured players, who are often discarded; a portion of the $1 billion in new TV revenue to guarantee health protections for athletes; the establishment of an educational fund to increase graduation rates; and a call for unity among those seeking reform.

One of the leaders of the movement, Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter, calls APU "a sign of players coming together all over the nation — not just football players, but basketball players, tennis players — to have our opinions heard and our needs met."

The NCAA’s response was tepid, stating that it "supports open and civil debate" on these issues. You can debate which issue is the most urgent, but clearly anything related to sharing the revenue is going to get NCAA types very frothy.

As usual, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany doubled down on the bluster the other day, asserting that "If (student-athletes) are not comfortable and want to monetize, let the minor leagues flourish. Train at IMG, get agents to invest in your body, get agents to invest in your likeness. But don’t come here and say, ‘We want to be paid $25,000 or $50,000.’ Go to the NBA and get it. Go to the NFL and get it. Don’t ask us about what we’ve been doing."

In other words, the most powerful man in the cartel is suggesting, It’s our oligarchy, thank you, and we aren’t serious about that open and civil debate.

Of course, if a kid has issues with the NCAA business model, Delany’s pals own his body, his name, his likeness and the company store for at least a few years before he can turn pro anyway.

As Walter Byers, the NCAA’s first executive director, once wrote, years after he grew a conscience, "College amateurism is not a moral issue; it is an economic camouflage for monopoly practices."

Maybe you won’t embrace everything about APU. Your favorite team may not be involved, either — Rutgers players, for example, are utterly oblivious. But you should look into it.

This may not be Libya or Egypt, but when a young, motivated, predominantly poor and socially connected group of teenagers decides to rally around a cause, you shouldn’t doubt that it can knock down empires.

And don’t doubt that APU is a galvanizing concept.

Because the winds — and zeitgeist — are shifting.

"It could be the end of the NCAA as we know it," Huma said, repeating our premise. "I think schools still want to wrap themselves in the NCAA label, because it has still enabled them to receive billions in tax-free revenue. And obviously schools with power and money want more power and money. I just don’t think NCAA will have the same authority it has now, and that’s a good start."